HC removes management fetters on IOC officers

The Calcutta High Court has struck down an agreement between Indian Oil Officers Association and the company management, which put fetters on executives of deputy general manager rank and above from becoming part of the employees’ body or staging agitation.Sanjay Dutta | TNN | June 21, 2016, 07:20 IST

New Delhi | June 20: The Calcutta High Court has struck down an agreement between Indian Oil Officers Association and the company management, which put fetters on executives of deputy general manager rank and above from becoming part of the employees' body or staging agitation.

Disposing a petition challenging the agreement by the association, Justice I P Mukherjee struck down clauses that imposed restrictions on officers to participate in agitations or become member of the association and ordered a fresh agreement be signed within six months.

The agreement was signed between three members of the association and the management after the nationwide strike by oil industry employees that nearly brought the country to a halt in 2009. The company management had suspended and dismissed several employees as the government cracked the whip. These employees were asked to sign the agreement before they were reinstated.

According to association president Mukul Kumar, the association challenged the agreement executed by its representatives on the ground that they were under duress at that time and were trapped by the management with the allurement of revoking their termination and suspension orders as well as fast-track promotions.

Senior management executives said they were studying the court order. They said the agreement had only formalized something in practise since 1987, when DGM and above-rank officers were not part of the union. "The agreement is to ensure national security. One must appreciate that these were dismissed or suspended employees. The company was being compassionate by offering to take them back, albeit with a formal agreement. Our initial reading is that the court has disapproved of the context in which the agreement was signed," one officer familiar with the legal case told TOI.

According to Kumar, the clause which debarred association from raising issues concerning terms of employment and conditions of service was also declared null and void by the court. Indian Oil management subsequently pleaded for stay on the operation of the Judgement, which too was turned down.

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